The experts at Walter Knoll Florist will help do it. How to Re-Bloom Your Poinsettia Plant . Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cut back each of the old flowering stems to 4 to 6 inches in height. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned. Blooming Twice is Nice! Poinsettia life cycle may seem a bit complicated, but this short-day plant must satisfy certain growing requirements in order to bloom. Michigan State University Extension suggests watering it when the top inch of soil is dry. The … When fall temperatures begin to drop, bring the plant indoors. Even a nightlight can disrupt this process! Water as usual until early April, then stop watering and allow the soil to dry out. MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer, committed to achieving excellence through a diverse workforce and inclusive culture that encourages all people to reach their full potential. Getting poinsettias to reflower is not easy, but with some patience and care it can be done. Clip a few flowers off different poinsettia plants, and trim and sear their stems. If your poinsettia was colorized or dyed, the flower color will be different from when it was purchased. First, let’s talk about how to care for them during the holidays so that you can get a good start on reblooming. Reblooming your Poinsettia. Once indoors, find a location where the poinsettia will get 14 hours of continuous, uninterrupted darkness and 10 hours of bright light. It works every time and requires no daily effort. So I did some research and found that the key to getting them to rebloom is to make sure that they receive long periods of darkness in late fall or early winter. Sign-up to get a daily batch of tips, tricks, and smiles to, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Is Releasing A Holiday Ice Cream Line That Includes A Boozy Flavor, Starbucks Will Give You A Free Drink Next Week If You Buy One Today, Target Has Items Up To 50% Off On Cyber Monday, We Went Through All The 2020 Cyber Monday Deals And These Are The Ones You Should Care About, The ‘Baby Shark’ Animated Series Will Premiere With A Holiday ‘Fishmas’ Special, Pandemic Could Be ‘eradicated’ If 70% Of People Wore Surgical Masks, Study Says. This must happen every single day until after Thanksgiving for the … Do this in February or early March. Next, place the poinsettia near the window. Continue a regular watering program and fertilize your plant with ferti•lome All Purpose Water Soluble Plant Food, a water-soluble fertilizer. February – Prune; Check for insect pests. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464). Put your poinsettia "to bed" in a closet, dark and unused spare bedroom or dark basement when you get home from work in the evening and put it back in a bright day light spot 14 or more hours later. But did you know that it’s possible to keep your festive plants year round and rebloom them for a second season? The key to getting your poinsettia to turn red (or to re-shade), is the elimination of light. Provide 13 to 16 hours of complete and uninterrupted darkness daily. The best way to make a new poinsettia from and old poinsettia is to take an herbaceous stem cutting from the tender growth of a terminal shoot. Dig up and repot the plant in the fall. And this will give you a beautifully blooming poinsettia with no extra effort. But I plan to keep going until the end if December. Even small amounts of light such as a street light, car headlights or the light from a TV can throw it off. November 27, 2016 at 4:53 PM. After the holiday season, your poinsettia will have dropped all of its leaves. Native to Mexico, poinsettias are popular plants in the U.S. because they are one of the few plants that bloom in the winter and happen to have the same colors as Christmas. Alternate between periods of light and total darkness every single day for 6 to 8 weeks. Late Winter - Early Spring. That's a great idea, but you’re going to need to do some work. My plant is in week four of 14 hours of darkness and only one small leaf is beginning to turn red. Repot into a 2-3 inches in diameter larger pot. Even a “wall” of taller houseplants will do, as long as no intense artificial light reaches the poinsettia. Remote Learning and Resources for Those at Home During COVID-19 Pandemic, Stay Informed With the MSU Extension Newsletter. Nighttime: provide complete uninterrupted darkness for 12 to 15 hours a day (whatever fits your schedule). The 4-H Name and Emblem have special protections from Congress, protected by code 18 USC 707. Late Spring - Summer. Your poinsettia should be moved outdoors during summer, so it is important to keep it in good condition now. If you do decide to carry over a poinsettia, understand that the process can vary from region to region. By the end of May you should see vigorous new growth. If you want to get your poinsettia to rebloom beginning in October, this is what you need to do. Continue watering as usual and keep it in a sunny location. Want to save it and rebloom it next holiday season, but was told it was too difficult? Do you love your poinsettia so much that you want to keep it for another year? Here at Ron & Alicia Robinson Florist, we have the tips and tricks for keeping these beautiful plants looking their best throughout the holiday season and beyond.For a quick and easy guide, check out our infographic at the end of this post! Its botanical name is Euphorbia pulocherrima, which makes it a member of the Euphorbia family. Year-Round Poinsettia Care. Dig up and repot the plant in the fall. Do not worry if you are unable to get your poinsettia to rebloom your first time. While easy to maintain, getting them to bloom again can be a little tricky, but totally worth it if you find yourself struggling to part with the festive plants post-New Year. Purple with glitter does not exist in nature. Poinsettias are great to have around the Christmas season. Each day at 5 p.m., remember to cover the plants to ensure darkness, and then uncover … The color transformation of the plant’s lovely bracts occurs when the plants are given precise periods of complete darkness. This needs to be done before nighttime temperatures get close to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s super important that from Sept. 21 through the end of October your poinsettias get 14 to 15 hours of complete, uninterrupted darkness daily, along with nighttime temperatures around 65 degrees. The flower is actually the little “button” at the tip of the stem, and the petals are leaves called bracts. To rebloom, poinsettias need about 10 weeks with 12 hours or less of sunlight per day. Often, blooms will last for months after January. During the day, the plants need bright light, along with the other routine care. When you first bring your new poinsettia home, put it in an area of the house that gets good light (avoid a north window); maintain a draft-free environment with temps of 65-75; water thoroughly whenever the surface soil feels dry but don’t allow the plant to sit in water. Start by choosing a shallow container that will show off the colorful blooms, and fill it with fresh water. The Process for Reblooming Your Poinsettia. It's somewhat tricky to get your poinsettia to bloom again. While this can be done, it requires greenhouse-like conditions with hands-on care. Each day at 5 p.m., remember to cover the plants to ensure darkness, and then uncover them around 7 or 8 a.m. You can give them to other families to help bring joy to their lives. The first important part is to remove the colored foil covering the outside of the pot. Rebloom that Poinsettia – Don’t Toss it! From October 1 to December 1 (or for at least 40 days), a poinsettia will need a strict light/dark regimen to produce color. Include sprigs of greenery (which you can steal from your Christmas tree) to add rustic detail. The plant should be removed from the container at the time of planting. Poinsettias need to be close to a west or south window and receive some sun during the day. When fall temperatures begin to drop, bring the plant indoors. Throughout the daytime, your poinsettias should be soaking up the sun. Poinsettias have been considered as a holiday plant in the United States since the 1820s. To rebloom your existing poinsettia by Christmas, you need to expose it to natural day lengths from that point on. Then place your poinsettia near a sunny window somewhere else indoors and set up a screen of some sort between it and the rest of the room. Do not allow your poinsettia to sit in standing water. You'll need to provide 13 to 16 hours of complete and uninterrupted darkness daily. Once the flower petal leaves fade and fall off the plant, cut back the stems to just below the flowers and allow them to grow back. In May, cut back the foliage so that only about four inches of stem remains, then repot the plant in fresh potting mix. If you feel a little guilty throwing away your poinsettias once the holiday season has ended, then don’t! When mid-summer rolls around, prune the plants back to one-half to one-third and re-pot them in the same or slightly larger pot. Get Your Poinsettia to Rebloom. Basically, you want to treat poinsettias like any houseplant: Give them bright light, don’t over-water them and make sure to feed them with a liquid houseplant fertilizer. This isn’t a poinsettia, but it gives you an idea of what your cutting should look like. All About Poinsettias. Who doesn’t appreciate a lovely, vibrant poinsettia during the holiday season? Most suggest around 14 hours. This requires some management to get it to bloom for the holidays. Cut the stems back to about 6 inches and make sure some leaves remain. MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer. Ambassador to Mexico. Known as “short-day” plants, poinsettias need long, dark nights for their leaves to change colors. You will have to artificially create these conditions and it's crucial that you be diligent. Keep in mind they will grow, but they’ll stay green in the summer. Poinsettias are a great way to brighten up your home, and with the proper care, they can continue to do so long after the holidays. The color transformation of the plant’s lovely bracts occurs when the plants are given precise periods of complete darkness. With proper care, poinsettias can retain their beauty for two to three months, and if you’re dedicated, you can even get poinsettias to rebloom the following year. Poinsettias require very specific light conditions to allow the plant to make flowers again. Daytime: keep your poinsettia in the sunniest location you have. How to Rebloom Poinsettias After Christmas. Copyright © Simplemost, All Rights Reserved. This permits them to change colors. Re-blooming a plant is never easy and re-blooming a poinsettia plant is no exception. The correct lighting is key to making this whole process work! Now unscrew all the light bulbs in the room. History of Poinsettias. Here are tips for year-round care: Poinsettias thrive in sunny windows that get at least 6 hours of indirect light every day. Tips for How to Rebloom A Poinsettia. It’s possible to re-bloom your poinsettia plant after Christmas with a few simple tricks. Here is how, step by step, throughout the year, you can rebloom your poinsettia. You may not realize it, but with proper year-round care, poinsettias can rebloom in time for the next winter season. How to Rebloom Your Poinsettia By late March or early April, cut back your poinsettia to about 8" in height. However, with the right amount of care, you can get Poinsettias to grow back next year with not that much effort. Continue caring for your poinsettia like this until the end of March. The plant should be removed from the container at the time of planting. The most common colors for the bracts that we call flowers are red, orange, pink, pale green, cream, white and marbled. Others will put it under a cardboard box for the 14 hours. Poinsettias are striking tropical plants appreciated for the bright color they provide during the winter holidays. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. Water and fertilize the poinsettia to stimulate growth. Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or veteran status. Nancy Randall says. Figure out when you go to sleep and when you leave for work, and set up a schedule you … If you follow these precise directions, your poinsettias should be getting bright and cheery by the end of November. This just involves clipping the very tip of the stem. When most people realize the amount of work it is to get another year out of their poinsettia and how inexpensive many plants are, the choice may not be to try to rebloom the poinsettia, but to buy again. Do you hate throwing out your poinsettia each year? Reblooming your Poinsettia. In early April, snip the stems to about six inches. As soon as you see new growth, begin fertilizing at half-strength every week. January 8, 2016. Along with Christmas trees, snowmen and gingerbread houses, these decorative, colorful plants make the season bright! In nature, your charming little poinsettia would grow to be a woody shrub. You will probably need a bigger container. When all danger of frost has passed, usually the end of May, it’s time to find a location outdoors where the plant will receive strong morning sunlight.